Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Week 56: "And then he baptized three pueblos", Sprinting in the Rain, and Soul Prayers!

Hola family!

The highlight of the week was a visit from Elder
and Hermana Zwick,who speak fluent Spanish, have been mission
president and wife twice,and who's a member of the 70. He also spent 11
months of his missionto Argentina opening up three towns, building a chapel
with just hiscompanion and him, and baptizing all three pueblos
on the sameday(1500 people or so, no big haha). So sorta a
modern day Peter, buthe taught some amazing lessons on teaching, but
mainly on focusing onour personal foundations, and making sure that we
are all the wayconverted as missionaries the entire mission(best
quote "I won't limitmy own capacity, I'll only let the Lord expand
it". Boom!). ElderPerry was a bit disappointed however with the
elders that stayed thenight in our piso from Lleida who ate his cookies
haha.

It rained here this week. And I mean like full
western Washingtonwindstorm rain, with fallen trees we ran past on
our run, gettingsoaked during contacts with nice Peruvian people,
and using ourumbrellas as a shields in front of us as we sprinted
to our piso, barelymaking in back in time as Elder Perry's planner
goes flying into apuddle. The plus was we found some buildings to
knock, with some verystrange people inside(including a very nice
Catholic man who's wifeforced him to close the door...porque?). But we
made the best of it,and thankfully we weren't in the rain too much!

On an intercambio with Elder Jacobson, the other
new new elder in ourpiso, we were passing by a former investigator in
our area when we sawthis extremely old Spanish man named Jesus leave a
door across theplaza. So being nice people we say hello, and him
being an oldeefellow asks us to speak up. Well, he still
couldn't hear us so weended up having to walk over and speak into his
ear about who we wereand about our message. He listened but after
loudly proclaiming hisCatholicness, he shuffled away, not before belting
out at the top ofhis lungs "Nearer my God to thee", in
Basque. He was still singing aswe passed by him to leave the plaza, with his
voice echoing down thestreet! Pretty funny moment after being out in the
rain haha! ElderJacobson later cut off a super loud Jehovah's
Witness woman too so itmade for a pretty good day!

Those two Paraguayans from last week that we
found, Melda and Selsa, aregreat too! They even invited us to Melda’s
birthday party in arestaurant on Thursday, where we ended up eating
fries, Jamon balls andexplaining the fall of Adam and Eve(not what we
had planned, but theyand their other friends at the table we pretty
open to it too!). Justgoes to show you can talk about the gospel
anywhere, even whiledrinking Fanta and eating Jamon balls.

Prayer works! As shown through a) finding two news
twenty minutesafter praying for someone to teach, b) finding an
African man to teachafter a visit firing and us praying to be sent
where we're needed, andc) praying last night for a miracle before heading
back to our piso, andfinding Melda with a bag of bread for us and two
old woman who want tolearn English, and who have Book of Mormons. The
key to it all I foundwas praying with a purpose, and acting on even the
smallestpromptings, even if it means leaning on a door of
a random building tosee if it would open! I'm just grateful for having
a new, faith filledtrainee who's excited to work, and is grateful for
any opportunity toteach!

Las arenas is the best, basque people, rain, and
all!

I love and miss you all! Thank you for all your
many prayers and letters

🇪🇸🌴Elder Taylor Moulton🌲🇪🇸

Goodbye Elder Stratton - friends since day one!

Thank you Elk Run Primary!

This pic we found on a intercambio with Elder Jacobsen and I in a shirtless Columbian man's piso haha!

Rama activity with Elder Hemeyer here for the night after the conference